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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25895218">Keep the Receipt After Buying Satan Scented Candles from a Thrift Store</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamietka/pseuds/Zamietka'>Zamietka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gintama shorties [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gintama</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:00:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,545</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25895218</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamietka/pseuds/Zamietka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An unexpected visitor in the Yorozuya household.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sakata Gintoki &amp; Yoshida Shouyou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gintama shorties [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895635</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>128</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gintoki lighted the flame, grumbling under his nose, his brow furrowed. He got some candles once from that cursed thrift store he had the displeasure to know. After the kotatsu incident he promised himself he would never resort to using items from there anymore. Never. He promised. But! The storm raging outside this evening was bad enough for the electricity to cut out, and a dusty box of candles labelled "For Absolute Emergencies Only" hidden deep inside of his closet wouldn't leave his thoughts. The silver-haired samurai had his priorities, after all. It was monday. Luxurious electric light or cheap light from the cursed ritual candles - it didn't matter. The Jump had to be read.</p>
<p>As he shook his hand with the match to put the flame out, he briefly looked around his surroundings to make sure he hadn't summoned anything weird and otherworldly. The room was barely lit, but for peaceful Jump reading, it would be enough, he decided.</p>
<p>Then, he felt a shiver on his spine, and in a dim light, right in front of him, a shadow materialized itself in a shape of a tall humanoid figure. Gintoki let out a surprised yelp and backed away, throwing his slipper at The Thing in desperation.  The figure hissed in pain and started massaging its scalp.</p>
<p>"Oh dear." The shadow could talk. Its voice was so painfully familiar to Gintoki that his heart stopped for a second in his chest. The figure was becoming more clear now, looking him over with a questioning gaze. The long hair. The kind eyes. The gentle smile.</p>
<p>The smile that still plagued his dreams.</p>
<p>"Sh. Shoyo...?" he blurted out. A ghost. It must have been a ghost.</p>
<p>"Gintoki, I think there is something really weird in these candles you bought," his sensei commented off-handedly, looking around the room curiously.</p>
<p>The silver-haired rubbed his eyes with trembling hands. But the ghost of Shoyo still stood tall in his room. He chuckled nervously.</p>
<p>"You don't tell?" He then grabbed the cursed candle, desperately blowing off the flame, hoping it would make the ghost disappear, but to no avail. He got down to the floor level, bowing, muttering some quickly thought of mantras and apologies to calm the spirit down, but he only could hear it sigh.</p>
<p>"Gintoki, calm down, I'm not a ghost. I don't know how you did it, just a second ago I was in the classroom, lecturing you, and then... I see you as an adult, in a foreign room." Shoyo scratched his chin thoughtfully.</p>
<p>"...Eh?" Gintoki raised his head from the floor, blinking.</p>
<p>"Yes, whatever happened, it’s really weird for both of us. Although seeing you all grown up is a very interesting experience, I must say," Shoyo smiled, and offered him a hand to stand up. Gintoki reluctantly grabbed it.</p>
<p>It was warm.</p>
<p>It was real.</p>
<p>Then, the door to his room slid open, and he realised that he was not alone in the apartament, after all, and the kids definitely heard all that ruckus he had made. He tried to shield his teacher’s mysterious presence from anyone's sight with his body, but Kagura barged in rapidly, throwing herself right at his neck, her weight dragging him down back to the floor immediately.</p>
<p>"Gin-chaaan! Stop making mommy so worried!"</p>
<p>"Gin-san, we heard a voice and you screaming. Who is that? A client?" Shinpachi squinted at Shoyo.</p>
<p>"Get off of me, you monkey! Ahaha! Um. No! Yes. Not really?" the samurai yelped, still awkwardly trying to cover his teacher's body from the kids' sight for some reason, until he could feel Shoyo placing a hand gently on his shoulder.</p>
<p>"I'm just an old acquaintance of his, coming with a visit," his sensei offered with a smile. "And who might you two be? Gintoki's children?"</p>
<p>"Pfft, I wish," Kagura said bluntly. "maybe he would pay us regularly, then. We are his workers. No way this guy will ever get laid, he is too gross." She looked at him pointedly and started digging her nose.</p>
<p>"Hey, who are you calling gross?! Look at yourself first!" Gintoki gave her an admonitory swat over the head. Kagura let out a disgruntled scream and flicked his forehead with her snot-covered finger. With the girl's strength it was enough to make Gintoki flip back to the floor once again. </p>
<p>Shouyou blinked at the amicable scene and then smiled more widely, nodding in understanding, "Ah. I see."</p>
<p>"Who did you say you were, again? Do you have a job for us?" Shinpachi inquired, down to earth as always.</p>
<p>"Ah. We were trying to figure that out before you two appeared. My name is Shoyo. I took care of Gintoki when he was little. Believe or not, it looks like somehow I was brought here from the past!"</p>
<p>"That's... certainly pretty interesting?" It was obvious the teen didn't believe the word he was hearing, but still tried to be polite about it. “Do you… have any proof for that?”</p>
<p>"Well, given how you don’t know who I am - and I dare say that you must be good friends with my student there - and how Gintoki was sure I was a ghost... I assume I must have died already, a long time ago."</p>
<p>The silence fell through the room, Gintoki avoiding everyone's gaze, suddenly deciding that the floor is comfortable enough to not bother getting up this time around. Shinpachi coughed awkwardly.</p>
<p>"Well, anyway, I'm Shinpachi, and this is Kagura..."</p>
<p>"And that's Sadaharu!" Kagura added jovially, noticing that the dog has made its presence known by biting the guest's head affectionately. Shoyo was still smiling, unfazed by the fangs and the saliva on his hair, and only brought up his hand to pet the giant dog, making Sadaharu's tail wag like crazy.</p>
<p>“Yes, Sadaharu.” Shinpachi blinked, then continued. "Um. If what you are saying is true, to me, it looks like a typical time-travelling shenanigan connected to fanfiction writing, if anything. So many wild things happened in the canon already, the fanfiction writers stray from any logic pretty often. Usually it gets resolved after a tragic backstory is revealed to people close to the character."</p>
<p>"Hm? That's odd; why would I be brought here to reveal my tragic backstory to you, though? Nobody in this room knows me except for Gintoki. Unless..."</p>
<p>Everybody turned into the direction of the silver perm still sprawled on the floor under them. The perm made a gulping sound under their gaze.</p>
<p>"What? No way! The main character never reveals his secrets like this! It makes no sense. It's just stupid. Where is the drama? The suspense?"</p>
<p>Kagura squinted. "You are just hiding some dirty, pervy secrets aren't you?" she muttered in a suspicious tone.</p>
<p>"Hey! How can you talk about Gin-san like this after he took you under his roof!"</p>
<p>"Well, she has a point, we barely know anything about you, Gin-san. Look, it's a perfect opportunity for you to tell us."</p>
<p>"I refuse," he huffed.</p>
<p>"Oh?" Shoyo piped in at that. "He hasn't even told you about his school days with Katsura and Takasugi?" </p>
<p>"Eh?! <i>This</i> Takasugi? The one that tried to murder people?"</p>
<p>"Well, I don't know what he is up to now, but as kids they were adorable. One time they teamed up and dyed Gintoki's hair green for eating all of Zura's rice balls."</p>
<p>"Nooo. Shoyo, shut up," Gintoki groaned, covering his ears at Kagura's choked laugh.</p>
<p>"The paint wouldn't wash off, so I had to cut his hair. He looked like an angry bald potato! I still have a photo, you can have a look," his sensei boasted, digging out the said photo somewhere from his sleeve, making Gintoki scream in panic and rise up abruptly from the floor.</p>
<p>"<i>Why</i> would you carry that around?! What's wrong with you? Give me that!" he made a quick swipe at the photo, ready to tear it in half after he indeed saw his disgusting hairstyle from his childhood days.</p>
<p>
  "Hey, I wanna see!" Kagura threw herself violently at him, and after getting a well-calculated kick in the face and meeting with a floor one time too many, Gintoki decided to give up before he could acquire any new injuries. When Kagura and Shinpachi started fighting with each other over who would get to use the photo as blackmailing material, he decided that he had enough.
</p>
<p>
  "Gah, I'm going outside for a bit. Zero respect in this household. Gin-san is too old for this."
</p>
<p>
  He walked out to the veranda, sliding the door behind him. It was still raining outside, but the storm had quieted down considerably, only the lighting being seen from afar and rumbling quietly. As he let out a breath he didn't notice he was holding in, he realised just how tense he was that whole time.
</p>
<p>
  How could his teacher just... Appear all of the sudden like this, right into the middle of his already - more or less - sorted out life? It was so bizarre. Too bizarre.
</p>
<p>
  It only made him think of how things would go like if…
</p>
<p>
 If only Shoyo hadn't died by his hand, 10 years ago.
</p>
<p>
The muffed sound of Kagura and Shinpachi fighting was soon cut out by the door sliding open, and then Shoyo appeared next to him, making a small gasp of awe at the world outside.
</p>
<p>
"Ah, this is such a nice town; it looks so much better than our run-down school. Looks like you found yourself a good place to live, you know."
</p>
<p>
"Yeah," the silver-haired samurai only said in response, without turning back, his eyes still focused on the lightning flashes seen from afar. The moment of tense silence passed, and then Shoyo picked up the chat once again.
</p>
<p>
"Gintoki? I know you better than anyone else. I see the fear on your face you are trying to hide, I see how you are avoiding your eyes from me, I see your hands trembling slightly. I heard that part where Takasugi and you are enemies now; I won't ask what happened, but..."
</p>
<p>
Gintoki flinched slightly when he felt a familiar touch at his head. He shivered as the well-known fingers pat his hair, so gentle, the same way they used to be all these years ago after he was found by the kindest soul he had ever met. He closed his eyes, and allowed himself a small contended sight at the nostalgic gesture.
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
  <i></i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div>"It's okay, Gintoki. No matter what happened to me, or to you… I know you’ve tried your best to live by the bushido I bestowed upon you.”<p>The silver-haired samurai was quiet; only the soft pitter patter of the rain could be heard, even the bar below being unusually silent. </p>
<p> “I'm proud of you. Please always remember that, okay?"</p>
<p>Gintoki took his time to answer that; he breathed in the sweet smell of his sensei, savoring the comforting presence he missed so, so much, he tried to savor it while it still lasted, and all the years he was devoid of it made themselves known as his eyes burned.</p>
<p>Then, he finally nodded. </p>
<p>When he opened his eyes again, the ghost of the past was gone, like a flicker of the candle flame, and the touch of the wind on his hair and the smudge of rain on his wet cheeks were all that was left behind.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>extra short thing written some time ago because I just felt like it, might as well throw it here</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That night, Gintoki had a dream.</p>
<p>In this dream, the familiar black candle was burning brightly once again, flame dancing happily around the small room, enlightening the familiar faces of his friends. Zura, Takasugi, Tatsuma, the four Joui in their old squad, and in front of them - the smiling face of Him. The smiling face of Sensei, once again showing himself in his dreamscape and disrupting Gintoki’s peaceful rest. </p>
<p>Takasugi was staring for a while, frozen in disbelief, before he outright threw himself into his beloved caretaker arms, the collected, serious image he was always trying to uphold shattered instantly as he let out a pained sob, burying his face into his Sensei's chest. Shoyo placed a small kiss at his forehead - a small gesture Takasugi used to hate in his younger days now was making the mighty Kihetai leader melt under the touch. He tightened the grip on his Sensei's clothes and shook more intensely under the hand that was gently rubbing his back.</p>
<p><i>He deserves this moment,</i> Gintoki thought, <i>after the world brutally took away the only person that loved him as a parent would love their kid. The most important figure in his life.</i></p>
<p>Next to him, Zura was crying silently, before also closing in and embracing the other two gently, smiling through his tears. The guy always liked hugs, Gintoki remembered, and his hugs were always warm and delicate, like he worried the things he loved dearly may shatter under his touch and never come back. <i>Maybe they were,</i> Gintoki thought, smiling sadly, thinking of how much they've lost already. Zura deserved this moment; this odd, well-mannered kid, only accepted by his late grandmother and a simple temple teacher, both lost too early in his life.</p>
<p>Tatsuma’s jovial laugh filled the silence, and a big body rushed and crashed into the other three, almost making them stumble. Gintoki grinned to himself. The fool didn't even know what it was all about, yet he couldn't help joining a hug when he saw one; butting into their lives, into the war that was not his, and refusing to let them mope alone afterwards, finding and visiting his friends whenever he got the chance (or providing them with weird talking ducks). He deserved to be here after all he had done and how he suffered; he deserved this piece of happiness and calm the Sensei's presence always brought.</p>
<p>Zura's hands reached out to Gin, and he couldn't help but laugh lightly when he joined their embrace as well. It was so similar to how it felt like when they were kids, yet different at the same time, with all their bodies grown up, and bigger, and stronger. But it still felt warm, warmer than anything else in his life; warm like home. </p>
<p>He wasn’t sure if he deserved it, yet still… He would close his eyes and allow himself this moment, for now.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He found himself waking up quietly in the middle of the night, staring at the dark ceiling. On some subconscious level he knew the dream was too good to be true, but the emptiness of his room was still a disappointing reality to come back to.</p>
<p>It seemed so hollow.</p>
<p>He got up and walked over to Kagura's closet. Sadaharu, always on watch, raised his ear slightly, but only let out a small contended huff when his owner started petting his head. The soft texture made Gintoki's lips curve in a slight smile. He looked at Kagura's face, messy hair covering her forehead, brows scrunched deep in sleep, quietly snoring. He very gently swiped the hair off the girl's face, still thinking about the dream he just had.</p>
<p>Nothing was quite like it used to be... Yet what he had now also made him feel warm inside. He had a feeling his old friends found that warmth again, too.</p>
<p>It was warm as only a true home can be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>one twitter post inspired me to make both a drawing AND a fic haha i'm such a mess when comes to gintama ;;</p><p>and these candles probably had some illegal contrabanda drugs inside of them idk i'm just a fanfiction writer</p></blockquote></div></div>
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